A conversation with Niobia Bryant

Niobia Bryant, who grew up in Newark, sets many of her books in the city she loves.

The sexy woman on the cover is shown only from her lips to her knees. Yet, you know she means business. Naeema Cole isn’t a woman one crosses -- not more than once.

In “Kiss the Ring: An Urban Tale” by Meesha Mink (Touchstone Trade Paperback, 275 pp, $14.99) Naeema, known as Queen, is out to revenge her son’s murder.

Niobia Bryant, who grew up in Newark’s Central Ward, uses Meesha Mink as one of her pseudonyms. A successful writer, specializing in serial novels, she chatted from her home in South Carolina, with New Jersey Authors. What follows is an edited version of that conversation.

You earned two college degrees, what’s your background?

I have a B.A. in social and behavioral sciences, with a psychology minor. Then I entered an accelerated nursing program where you have to have a bachelors to even get into the program.

Did you work as a nurse?

I never have. Growing up, as an African-American child in an urban setting it was always pressed on me to go into teaching or nursing -- things that were guaranteed income. I had an aunt who was a nurse. Once I was into clinical, it was not for me. We had to pay up front so I finished.

How do you describe Queen?

Queen is a modern day Foxy Brown, kind of a reluctant vigilante, not perfect, very complex.

What do you like about her?

That she is kick ass.

How many books have you written?

Published? So far “Kiss the Ring” was 29. By the end of this year, it will be 31.
After this? “The Pleasure Trap,” written under my own name, and “Want, Need, Love,” a romance under my name.

Queen, the heroine, of Niobia Bryant's 29th book, is one tough woman.

What are your pseudonyms?

I write as Niobia Bryant, which is my real name. I write romance and I also write commercial mainstream fiction. As Meesha Mink, fiction, labeled as urban fiction, which is fine, and I also write Young Adult as Simone Bryant.

Why use other names?

The reader is very savvy and when I broke off to do the Meesha Mink books I wanted to clearly let the readers know this is something different. In the Meesha Mink books, the language is a little bit different, the story lines are a little bit darker and there can be violent content. And when you are dealing with the very first genre I was published in, romance, it can be a little jarring for readers who only read romance.

What are you reading now?

“Kiss the Ring” only because I am getting prepared to come up with a story line for book three. In terms of what I plan to read next, this is the first break I have had in six years – no deadlines until end of the year. I will be redecorating and organizing my house.

How does Newark influence your work?

In the same way that it influenced my life. I love the city of Newark and I love the person it shaped me to be. I went through the Newark school system and went on to Seton Hall. I credit my mom and grandmamma for molding me, but the city for making me a little street smart with a lot of common sense all mixed in. I counted yesterday – out of the 29 books I would say a dozen are set in Newark. Even though I moved to South Carolina, I still do that and give a little history of my city. It is not everything people from the outside paint it. I want to take that up a little, not in a preachy way, the way they judge.

Where did you get your first library card?

I love libraries. I was such a nerd, who wasn’t a nerd. I was a reluctant nerd. After high school, we would go to the library. I went to University High. I wasn’t one of the top. I was floating in the middle, doing just enough to get by. The first card? It was at the Newark Public Library, or one of the branches.

When did you know you were a writer?

I didn’t know it at the time. I believe in destiny and your life being mapped out for you and every pitfall being mapped out. I was on the No. 13 bus after school, University High School, and I used to sit in the back of the bus and just tell stories. I was basically lying, and people would listen. In hindsight, I was meant to be a storyteller.
Jacqueline Cutler: jacqueline cutler